Guadalajara – Acatic – San Diego de Alejandra – Guanajuato – San Miguel de Allende – Queretaro – Amealco – Chapa de Mota – Teotihuacan – Mexico City
9 days | 760 kilometers | 8104 meters elevation gain
For more than five months now I’ve been sleeping in a different place, regularly a different bed. No wonder my tent really starts to feel like home now. Sometimes after sleeping in hotels or at peoples’ homes for a few days, and I finally get to crawl in my sleeping bag in my red and white nylon house it really feels like sleeping in your own bed again after a long holiday.
After Guadalajara we plunge into a ravine. Not literally, but the road just goes steep down until we touch the river and then we have to climb back up again. When we reach the top we find that the city has made place for corn fields. Unfortunately our dear navigation app sends us over a cobblestone road. I try to not get agitated and succeed for the first 10 kilometers. After that my mood swings 180 degrees. Damn these cobblestones! Damn navigation app! After 14 bumpy kilometers we stop at a small shop. I am grumpy.
There is no way to tell how long this agony will still continue. A guy rolls a cigarette from home-grown tobacco in a dried leaf of corn. He sees us and starts pointing at the road. When I look I see that literally 100 meters further up the road the asphalt starts again. When we reach it I get off my bike and give a small kiss to the surface that we (me, Jacko and our bikes) love so much. We reach the town of Acatic. The young bike-gang starts interrogating us when we sit down on a bench on the main square.
We buy groceries and make our famous sandwich-tuna-salad in a huge park just out of the city. The police drops by and does some more interrogating. One of them asks for a cigarette and when Jacko gives him one everything is fine and we are allowed to sleep in the park. I sleep like a baby, but Jacko is having trouble catching sleep. Every sound that he hears at night startles him.



In the morning the same police guys drop by again. One of the guys wants to make a ride on Jacko’s bike and of course (they carry guns!) we let them.
A boring road to the east awaits us. First 40km of highway and then a secondary road to San Diego de Alejandra. The roads are very hilly and it takes a beating out of us.
During the day many grasshoppers are taking in the warmth of the tarmac on the side of the road and suddenly get startled by two pairs of Schwalbe Mundials that are heading their way. Some get crunched, some jump away just in time.
We have a good lunch and when we want to take off the owner gives us some bottles of water for the road. Another beautiful gesture in this beautiful world.
Jacko told me this morning that he’d rather not camp anymore until we’ll split in Mexico-City, because he just cannot sleep. I think the dangers of Mexico are still haunting him at night. Luckily the little town of San Diego has a very nice hotel for a very nice price. We are completely dead at arrival.


We get going early in the morning because we heard our next destination is going to be a beautiful one. We drive on a terrible road, the shoulder is very narrow with heavy traffic blazing by us. And if there is a shoulder it is a terrible one, with much rubbish on it. No wonder that me and Jacko get a flat simultaneouslyf. I even have to patch up two holes. When we leave the big road to make our way to Guanajuato the road goes up, up and a bit more up. We have our last Coca-Cola stop just 10km before we reach the town. It’s saturday afternoon and we see many people that have been working today and are enjoying some beers at the local shop. They’ve transformed a small grocery shop into a bar. They tell us about a big festival that’s going on in Guanajuato this evening, we listen with a big smile. Great timing.
Guanajuato is a maze so we have to turn around a couple of times because we reached a dead end. But what a city this is! It’s like Venice without the canals, build onto the side of a mountain. The houses seem to be just thrown down the top of the mountain. There’s no house that’s left unpainted, safron yellow next to fuchsia red next to lime green. And what amazes us even more is the whole world that’s build underneath the mountain. A network of underground tunnels is build under the city. We have to take one of these tunnels to get to the other side of the town and we see traffic lights, intersections and exits. All underground. This used to be a silver mining town so I guess the tunnels make sense.
We try to ride up to a hostel, but of course this city is not made for cyclists. Steep narrow roads and staircases make us walk our bike. When we get to the first hostel they are full. After the second one is full as well we start to panic a little bit. The city is completely fully booked because of the street festival. I talk to a nice owner of a hostel, she has one bed left. When I put my saddest look on my face she capitulates. “We can put a spare mattress next to the last bed to create room for two”. Love it: people that think along instead of only thinking in rules and problems.
We shower and go into town. The city is vibrant! The cultural festival is called Cervantino and this year is their 50th edition. An abbundance of people is roaming the street. There is food and music everywhere. The city is dressed up beautifully for what seems to be the biggest night of the year for her. Strollers walk between alleys to go from one stage to another. There’s groups of students in medieval costumes making music and roaming the streets, telling stories to the public bunch that is following them down the small alleyways. On the main square there are Mariachi bands playing and people are dancing on the street. We have a beer here and there, we get to start talking to some groups of people. We end up dancing the night away as well.






Despite a severe lack of sleep we have a perfect day. I cannot stop smiling because of the perfect night we just had. We escape the beautiful city through another set of tunnels. After we’ve been cycling on big roads the past days today’s road is a perfect secondary road. With a tailwind and the last bit being downhill we get thrown into San Miguel de Allende pretty early. Another UNESCO World Heritage town is awaiting us. We check in to a hostel and lay down in our bunkbeds for a bit.
My stomach did not digest last night so well.
Once again a beautiful town, but a bit more fancy and sophisticated than Guanajuato. Maybe polished is the right word. We decide we like Guanajuato better. We get to a rooftop to have a beer, enjoy the setting sun and reminisce the beautiful adventure we’ve been engaged on together for the last five months.







In order for us to leave town, we have to get over the mountain that its build against. So the first kilometers are filled with brutally steep cobblestoned alleys filled with tourists that are cheering us on. Our reward is a vista over the city. We cycle a beautiful, small, paved road. Flowers and cacti everywhere. But, just when you think you’ve managed to circumvent the big roads by taking these smaller ones, fate strikes. This Mexican saying that I just learned fits perfectly well: “if you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans“.
Suddenly the pavement stops halfway and cobblestones and rockbeds make way for it. Also we have to climb pretty steep up. At the top we’re both shaky from sugar deficit. Luckily we brought lunch. We enter Queretaro, the capital of the province that carries the same name. We ring the door bell of Christa and her son, they will be our Warmshowers hosts here. Christa is super chill and lets us do whatever the hell we want. We go into town to check it out. When we get back there is chicken, vegetables and a nice conversation with Christa.






It’s not the first time that we’ve been alone in somebody elses house on this trip. It reflects a tremendous faith in us and in mankind in general and makes me warm inside. Christa is a teacher and her son a student at the same school and school starts at 07:00 (!) here. So evidently we don’t see them this morning. We have breakfast, leave the house as we found it and close the door.
A hilly day today and we enter the town of Amealco de Bonfil pretty exhausted.
Time for our arrival beer. We sip on a cold Tecate Rojo beer when suddenly four cops, one with a huge gun, surround us from every corner of the towns square. Drinking in public is not allowed. A little too much show of power here but okay, no biggie. When they start talking about paperwork and fines I suggest that we just throw away our beers and not talk about it again. I don’t want to be anywhere near the Mexican justice system. We reach concensus.




Too bad the road is so bad that we don’t see anything of the beautiful vistas today. The road is a sloppy patchwork of tarmac and makes us need to watch where we’re riding all the time. If we would have been able to watch we could have seen that we are cycling over a beautiful plateau. Suddenly Jacko’s bike starts making a sound that’s all too familiar for us. This time the left eyelet of his frame broke off. We know the drill, 180 degree turn and start looking for a welder. I talk to a construction guy that gives us a name of a shop and some vague instructions.
It’s a miracle that we find the shop. I’ve never seen a more precise welder, let alone a Mexican welder, that is thís precise. He welds without safety goggles on, which is crazy because I’m standing far away and the infrared flashes even make me squint my eyes. Very nice guy that did a very good job. He doesn’t let us pay, but instead tells us to “remember crazy Mexicans that weld without goggles”. We make it to the town that carries the beautiful name of Chapa de Mota and check into a motel.


Sometimes I cycle with headphones in, listening to music or a podcast. Today is not a day for headphones, so I happily swing them back into my bags. We are driving through all these small roads connecting one small town to the other. Everything is happening here on the streets, people greeting us, people carrying food, construction materials or babies from one place to the other. You just don’t know where to look! We cycle over a beautiful high plain with foothills that stretch out over the horizon like ribs. A haze covers the landscape. I see a catterpillar crawling over the warm asphalt.
Jacko is not feeling too well so we take it easy, something I don’t mind at all. One thing you have to know about cycling in Mexico is that they put speed bumps in the road everywhere. And they don’t paint them or put a sign next to them.
Sometimes we’re nicely descending, everything fine and then BAM our eyes catch a speed bump that is way to close already with some air time as consequence. Today was a day with a lot of speed bumps. We notice we’re getting closer to Mexico City because of the density of everything. We circumvent this humongous city for one more day because we’re going to visit Teotihuacan first. We meet Julio and we’re in the understanding that we sleep in his house tonight, but to our surprise he hands us the keys of s complete house that he normally rents on AirBnB. If there are no guests, long distance cyclists can stay for free. Seriously, I think the bike community is the best thing that could ever happen to us. Julio goes out for a mountainbike ride himself with some friends and asks if they can come hang with us afterwards. For sure! So a couple hours later we’re drinking coffee with the whole Mexican MTB club in ‘our house’ and have a nice time.



The pyramids of Teotihuacan are otherworldly. An abundance of hot air balloons are flying over the pyramids. They are filled with tourists that prefer a more panoramic view of the pyramids. It makes for a fun contrast between the old and the new world. After our visit to the pyramids we pack our bags and hop on the bikes of to Mexico City, or how the Mexicans call it Ciudad de Mexico, or how they like to abbreviate it: CDMX! We take the toll roads because we’ve had enough of the speed bumps. A chaotic ride into CDMX follows, I’m glad we make it alive. We find a square with an abundance of mariachi bands and sit down for a beer.
We immediately make friends. Later we’ll meet Daniel, our Warmshowers host for our stay in Mexico. He introduces us to his conveniently named roommate Daniel. Let’s name them Daniel 1 and 2 for now. They have a room to spare so that’s perfect. Daniel 1 invites us to go to a cantina with him to celebrate his friends birthday, we happily go with him. We take a bus to get there. It’s rush hour on Friday night and the impulses from the busy street life thats evolving in front of us makes us sleepy. The cantina night is great and Daniel and his friends are awesome.
We will stay in CDMX for a week to have some rest and get some stuff done, like getting a visa. Visa for what? Stay tuned, my friends…








Mooi geschreven weer Marijn, gelukkig slaap jij al van jongs af aan supergoed en overal en ben jij niet bang aangelegd ( maar wel altijd op je hoede ……..toch 🙏)
De laatste foto’s vind ik prachtig
Op naar de laatste week samen en naar nog meer avonturen maar dan alleen
Liefs je moederke en STAY SAVE
Hallo Marijn,
ik lees je verhalen af en toe en ben erg onder de indruk van al je avonturen.
Wat een reis!
Het kan niet anders dan dat je als een heel ander mens terug komt, met een heel ander wereldbeeld.
Fantastisch dat je dit kan doen.
Vriendelijke groeten,
Jaap Vos
Ha Jaap! Wat mooi om te horen dat je mijn verhalen leest! Het is inderdaad een geweldige reis met vele mooie indrukken. Ik hoorde dat je gezondheidssituatie redelijk onder controle is en hoop dat je gezond blijft!!
Gossip wat maken jullie toch weer veel mee. Er gebeurd elke dag wel weer iets…. nooit saai bij jullie….en geweldig om het jullie mee te beleven.